#like you could say the same about wwx leaving but the point was that he came back

[llycaons]

I’m not a huge fan of wn/wxx or wx/wwx/lwj but I don’t have anything against it. I am nodding respectfully as we pass each other but I don’t think it’s very in-character

[accio-victuuri]

NOVEMBER 19 : The Full Story 📝

oh well sort of, cause this is what is known and shared publicly with tons of filling in the blanks by cpfs. someone made a side by side incidents during this day and time for the past years 2017 to now 2023 and it’s good to see it all laid out. it’s hilarious to see the realization among turtles that we could be wrong about their anniversary date. for years, we always talked about the month of June but now, November is making a great argument 😂

( these freakin masterminds are so naughty! I swear!!! 🤣🤣🤣 )

source of the compilation i’m using to outline is 圣衣雪琳 cause they perfectly summed up the key points very well. I already talked about some of these in my previous post but this is for the “11/19 lore” exclusively and so we can expand on other years.

I’m a sucker for timelines so let’s go 💪🏼

2017: At this time, they already know of each other and depending on who you ask might have already been low key stalking the other. LOL. WYB’s was about Just Dance and ZZ is a selfie and hotpot ; the latter post about going home.

I don’t think that this holds much significance in terms of an actual relationship and stuff happening behind the scenes. However, it feels like fate that they both posted on this day even without that significance being there. We cpfs love to talk about how they are fated and certain things, no matter how mundane, turned out to be a piece that completed the puzzle. There is some push back with some turtles saying this shouldn’t be included cause it seems like the start of this 11/19 is 2018 but again, just leaving this here. I could probably add 2015/2016 if we really wanna back track lol

2018: THIS IS THE KEY CPN IN ALL OF THIS. I have already explained it here. The infamous Japan trip. How both of them seemingly making references to their post from this year vs today (2023) especially XZ who even posted on the same time. There are so many rumors about this timeline, even going as far as saying the next day, they started living together. How this was WYB saying it’s WYB, not LWJ. So the relationship they have now is not between fictional characters but the real one.

I’m eating this candy whole. No one can tell me otherwise. I’m sold 🤣🤣🤣

Have we been wrong? did they officially become together 11/19/2018. Some are even pointing out that one of GG’s photos shared today appears to be him traveling back from IM to Beijing.

and who is in Beijing? His home. Yibo. 🏡

We love to think about them sharing photos to each other and i’m imagining this is ZZ sending something similar to WYB and saying that he is on his way back.

2019: Bazaar video was released, it’s message being a favorite among BXGs. Going by the assumption that this is their anniversary of sorts, it makes sense to have a message like that to be delivered.

how he met his love in a dream ( presumably that summer and playing wwx opposite wyb’s lwj ) and when he woke up, his love is still there. meaning even in reality, he still feels the same. no. it was not scripted, the one who shot it said it was xz’s answer and he was shocked too.

They posted some work related stuff on that day, with WYB’s being audi’s. the part of the caption we are clowning about is : Don’t blame me for not reminding you. Which in the original post and context is about the benefits you will get if you buy an Audi. but in cpn speak it could mean that ZZ probably forget, but he actually didn’t cause that bazaar love confession was clear.

2020: I already talked in detail over here #2 with was going on at the time.

It’s also the start of the whole Thursday is a good day to see you, in reference to WYB’s vogue post. Then it snowballed into a whole CPN of it’s own.

I forgot to add one important thing tho, around this time 11/18 there schedules were public and both are supposed to go back to Beijing. WYB was from Hangzhou and ZZ was from Nanjing. The incident of WYB changing his flight 3x so he can go back to Beijing is this time 11/18. We clowned that he was so eager to be in the same city with ZZ but with what we think now, it could be he wanted them to be together badly because it’s their anniversary the next day 11/19. 🤯

2021: Both of them posting a Douyin video that involves changing clothes. Which is a very common transition trend on the app but seeing it done on the same day was a treat and unusual. GG’s was posted 11/17 and WYB was 11/19.

I wanna remind people too that this is the same month we got the mysterious ��voices” both in Shenzhen Vlog ( his husband wang yibo ) and talks of ZZ being at the Luoyang press conference filming. The same month the whole Ximalaya CPN started too. So they were definitely “acting up”.

2022: No actual posts but a parallel. 11/17, Guangdian appeared on the itunes chart because of fan’s effort. 11/18, WYB released a song ( government related ) called Light Chaser. So spotlight = light chaser has similar element and theme of light. Then on 11/20 WYB’s shared a douyin with 👀.

2023: Probably making up for how quiet last year was, they decided to give us a big hint/s of what 11/19 is all about. 😂😂😂

This is all fake and cpn talk. I do enjoy when candies go years back! This journey of trying to piece things together is a bxg’s strength so we’re really thriving today— with all the possibly unrelated events we have managed to stitch together into this! 🙃

[wutheringskies]

The Twin Jades

dude sometimes I just come across such bad meta. it's even worse if it starts off good and turns bad.

Good Meta Points:

• The Lans really love younger child Wangji (no pets allowed, but wangji can have them. Wangji wants lotus pod seeds and gets them etc.)

• Instead of giving agency to his actions and thoughts, they think he's being influenced or corrupted by others to act in such ways (especially Lan Qiren.)

Bad Meta Points

• Lan Wangji is spoilt, similar to Nie Huaisang or Jin Zixuan.

• Gets the lowest punishment at all times (pfft.)

• "I get it you waited 13 years but you fucked off into the sunset with your husband leaving your emotionally unstable brother and duties"

• "Good to see people talking about Lan Wangji's flaws" - mentions him being spoilt and demanding instead of his actual flaws.

Like... you cannot seriously point out how he gets to have rabbits as a point of him being spoilt. Lan Wangji has made like one error in his life in his studies. He's assigned himself punishment for stuff that wasn't even done by will (coughs, wwx). He's made his decisions and lived with the consequences.

Despite what you say, Lan Xichen isn't a terrible brother to Wangji. Neither is Lan Wangji a selfish brother.

Sibling relationships are complex, and between two individuals with their own set of values. Lan Wangji is totally righteous, even more than Nie Mingjue. He can't stand exaggerated, political loopholes and unrighteous acts. He does what he can do, working on the ground level.

Lan Xichen isn't Lan Wangji. He knows the world is filled with corrupted people, and challenging each and every one of them would lead to your own devastation (read: Wei Wuxian's biography). Thus, he tries extending his sympathy to all, and draws conclusions that allow the least possible damage. He does think Lan Wangji made a dire mistake with Wei Wuxian, because if not, he will have to face the fact that the world punished his brother for his righteousness and it would shatter his whole foundation (like it does).

But despite that, both of them share similarities. They both want the better of the world. Lan Wangji is brave enough to challenge the whole foundation of the cultivation world. Lan Xichen is brave enough to lay down peace even when it's so painfully obvious there's no option of it.

Lan Wangji trusts his brother enough to bring Wei Wuxian back to Cloud Recesses after getting stabbed at Jin Tower. Lan Xichen lives up to this trust and helps them investigate the matter. Lan Wangji even assures Wei Wuxian that his brother would not stand for Jin Guangyao if his crimes were true.

See, you don't have to completely have the same sort of sets of beliefs to be siblings. Sibling relationships are complex. Both these brothers know each other, their strengths and their weaknesses well. They may be exasperated at each other's insistence, yet they are well aware that they both have to walk their own paths.

Lan Xichen could never take away Lan Wangji's pain or fix him. Neither can Lan Wangji fix Lan Xichen.

But both of them will always have each other's backs. They are each other's families. Each other's brothers for life.

But at the same time, they have each their own paths to walk. People need to understand that it's not about a lack of sense of responsibility on Lan Wangji's side, but the realization that if he went back home, he may lose Wei Wuxian again. His uncle wants to take him back, lecture him and lock him into seclusion. His uncle wouldn't accept his proposal to be married to Wei Wuxian.

He doesn't give his uncle the chance to "accept" or not.

And he literally returns three months later.

I can't help but feel that those who say he was selfish do not have siblings. Or have bad sibling relationships. I'd say Lan Wangji and Lan Xichen have a perfectly good relationship if despite their differences, their terrible parentage, their opposing personalities, the roles they both played in each other's life (with Lan Xichen being sworn brothers to Jin Guangyao who played a major role in Wei Wuxian's fall, and Lan Wangji being Wei Wuxian's husband, who in turn, set the case back onto Jin Guangyao, thus hurting Lan Xichen), the things they couldn't help each other out of, but yet, they do trust each other and love each other.

And I trust that Lan Xichen will one day figure stuff out. There's a lyric in this MDZS song called unfettered. It is like:

The past is akin to dew in the morning. Even if it can be comprehended, it lays under layers and layers of fog.

In the end, hatred, love, resentment, debts and regrets all come to pass.

Just like how Lan Wangji is not his father, Lan Xichen will also not be his father. I don't think both of them had hurtful intentions towards the other at any point.

It's not like "Yunmeng bros" where JC intentionally wishes to cause pain to Wei Wuxian. It's not like the Nie bros, where NMJ has to be super over-protective of Huaisang.

It's just two siblings with their own lives choosing to be with each other, in happiness and in grief (mostly in grief uhm) in a terrible world where the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

[mxtxfanatic]

You know, I can’t actually recall a time WWX ever controls/puppets actual ghosts the way he does fierce corpses. He has his ghost lady bodyguards that one time, but they’re mostly just chilling.

Can WWX actually control ghosts? I remember one meta saying ghosts are made of hun, while resentment powered corpses only have po, so it might make sense if he cannot.

It also might be that he technically could, but chooses not to since ghosts are clearly sapient, not just sentient, in the way most fierce corpses (excluding Wen Ning, and Song Lan) are not.

Or maybe he did control ghosts at some point but I’ve forgotten.

Honestly, mxtx doesn’t get into the mechanics of the different makeup of ghosts and corpses in the novel, so I’m not gonna address that as someone who knows nothing of how corpses and ghosts are differentiated culturally. On that note: Wei Wuxian doesn’t control ghosts or corpses the way fandom generally talks about it. He does not puppeteer their every move. He only redirects their resentment towards his targets, and even then, he doesn’t always need to. Take for example his revenge against Wen Chao and the Wen occupation of Lotus Pier: all he needed to do was attract the spirits the Wen were suppressing to the area and they did the rest of the work themselves, meanwhile the lady in red and the ghoul baby seemed to have personal grudges against Wen Chao, with Wei Wuxian referring to the lady in red as “his (Wen Chao’s) woman.” As for when he does need to direct them to a target such as with the Mo family, he only need to give a general order (“rip the rampaging arm apart”) then sat back to watch what happens, no further action necessary. In both corpses and ghosts, the ghost path leaves them with the autonomy of how to fulfill Wei Wuxian’s orders. Now going off of that point, I think this plays into the idea of the “consciousness” that ghosts/corpses have.

While Wen Ning and Song Lan may seem like exceptions to the “mindless corpse” rule, I think that they are actually only an exception to the fierce corpse rule, as “fierce corpse” is a specific classification for extremely dangerous corpses. We see walking corpses throughout the story that exhibit different levels of consciousness outside of Wen Ning and Song Lan, but the difference is that those corpses aren’t fierce corpses. Why does this matter? Well, fierce corpses are made incredibly powerful by their resentment…but this same resentment makes them mindless with rage. Wei Wuxian’s ghost path essentially exploits this known characteristic of fierce corpses to redirect their anger, something that we see he cannot do with non-fierce corpses, who have mind enough to run away from him. The more resetnful the corpse, the easier it is for him to control. And this quirk of ��more resentment = less consciousness” seems to be known to at least Wei Wuxian, because part of his treatment to bring Wen Ning’s consciousness back was to rid him of some of his resentment as he was “too fierce.”

In conclusion, Wei Wuxian doesn’t puppeteer either ghosts or corpses, and his ability to control either is dependent on how much resentment they carry, as being resentful means they are more mindless and susceptible to being controlled by outside forces (hm, wonder what that could be a metaphor for…)

[stiltonbasket]

Vampire WWX/Fae LWJ: What is their first time sleeping in the same room like? Their first breakfast? Or when WWX notices that LWJ is softer with bunnies?

part 1

On the morning after his arrival at the Cloud Recesses, Wei Wuxian opens his eyes to find Lan Zhan's moon-white face hovering less than an inch above his.

"I am going out to fetch breakfast for us," Lan Zhan says stiffly. "What do vampires eat when they cannot get human blood?"

So rude, Lan Zhan! Wei Wuxian laments to himself, rolling a sleeping A-Yuan onto his back. You could have at least wished me a good morning first, couldn't you?

But then, he had woken Wei Wuxian to ask what he wanted for breakfast, so perhaps this is just what Lan Zhan is like when he tries to be kind.

"Meat, mostly," Wei Wuxian replies, watching as his husband grimaces in distaste. "But half-blooded xuemo can survive without it, so you needn't hunt for me. I'd be grateful for a bit of the porridge you and your brother like as long as you give me permission to eat it."

He winks, making Lan Zhan blush all the way up to his ears. "You will give me permission, won't you?"

"I will, but that is beside the point. By the laws of your people, I am your husband, so it is my duty to provide the nourishment you need." The faerie takes a deep breath. "If you require meat, I will bring you some suitable creature to kill and eat as you see fit. I cannot do the killing myself, but fetching the animal—that I can do."

Wei Wuxian's heart melts; for all faeries hate to do harm to living creatures, and yet his Lan Zhan is willing to do most of the hunting work on Wei Wuxian's behalf.

"There's no need for that," he says gently. Lan Zhan opens his mouth to protest, clearly not liking the look of Wei Wuxian's thin wrists and sallow face; but Wei Wuxian only motions toward the south side of the cave, where he can hear the river gurgling through the trees on the other side of the wall. "You go out and buy some rice and vegetables, and I'll catch some fish for myself while you're away."

Lan Zhan inclines his head and departs, taking his money purse with him; for while the Lan faeries grow their own vegetables in the wood, they have to buy rice and dried spices from the human settlement to the north.

No wonder their food is so bland, Wei Wuxian thinks wryly, as he makes his way towards the river with A-Yuan in his arms. Lan Zhan doesn't have a single herb in his kitchen, except for that old lump of ginger.

He plants A-Yuan in the soft ground near the water, as he usually does at this time of morning. Wei Wuxian helps him dig his little legs as far into the ground as they can go, looking on in satisfaction as the three long leaves on the baby's head unfurl and reach up towards the sun; and then he lays a fish trap in the shallows and splashes across the river, keeping A-Yuan in his field of sight as he searches for kindling seasonings.

He manages to find wild cloves and garlic growing on the far bank of the stream; and by the time he goes back to examine his fish trap, A-Yuan has finished sunning his leaves and soaking his little body in the mud.

"I don't know if you're old enough to eat food," Wei Wuxian muses, marching back to the cave with A-Yuan wriggling under one arm and the laden trap under the other. "You need to be sunned and watered like a plant, so eating fish might make you sick. We'd better not risk it."

A-Yuan squeals and looks up at Wei Wuxian with wet, reproving eyes. "So you do want to eat fish!" Wei Wuxian says accusingly, making A-Yuan shriek with laughter. "But you don't have any teeth. I don't know very much about babies, Yuan'er, but I do know that the women in Jieyu Village never started weaning theirs before the babies cut a first tooth."

The baby looks more wronged than ever. "Bu!"

"Perhaps we should boil the rice into porridge, and put pieces of the fish inside," says a deep voice from behind them. "That way, the rice will be soft enough for A-Yuan to swallow without chewing."

"Oh!" Wei Wuxian turns around and nearly jumps out of his shoes at the sight of Lan Zhan, standing at the mouth of the cave with a bag of rice slung over his shoulder. "Lan Zhan, don't be so quiet when you're walking. I nearly dropped A-Yuan."

Lan Zhan shakes his head. "I doubt you could ever do such a thing. But in the future, I will endeavor to make more noise when you are close by."

He lowers his eyes to Wei Wuxian's fish trap. "Did you catch anything?"

"A pair of grass carps," Wei Wuxian tells him, extracting the fish from their prison and holding them up for Lan Zhan to see. "Now, go light the fire and fetch some water from the well. I need hot water for A-Yuan's bath, and it's past time for breakfast."

So Lan Zhan lights the fire in the little courtyard; and there is a courtyard, much to Wei Wuxian's relief, because Lan Zhan built his small refuge after the fashion of most human dwellings, so that Wei Wuxian could almost forget that his cave was a cave and not a wooden house. After that, he sets off for the nearby well with a yoke fitted about his neck and shoulders, returning scarcely ten minutes later with enough water for both breakfast and A-Yuan's bath.

"I will bathe A-Yuan while you fry the fish," Lan Zhan says, dropping the pails and taking the baby from Wei Wuxian's arms. "There is oil in the bag of groceries I brought, if you need it."

"You didn't have oil in your kitchen?"

His husband sighs. "I used the last of it for yesterday's dinner. Now go."

Wei Wuxian nods and makes his way outside, where he finds a strange contraption for grilling set up in the middle of the courtyard. It looks strong enough to support a hook and pan; but the fish will cook faster in the coals of the fire, so he spears the two carps and roasts them with his foraged seasonings until the skins are burned black.

"Is the rice ready?" he calls, ducking back into the cave. "And what about A-Yuan?"

"A-Yuan is ready. The rice is not," is his husband's laconic answer. "Come take him, and I will bring the rice out to you when it is cooked."

In the end, it takes another quarter-hour before the rice porridge is cooked through and made cool enough to eat. Wei Wuxian feeds some of it to A-Yuan and tries a little himself, after which he puts down his spoon to scold Lan Zhan for being so miserly with the salt and ginger.

Lan Zhan looks oddly pleased for a faerie being scolded about his cooking, though Wei Wuxian can't begin to imagine why.

Stranger still, that breakfast is one of the best Wei Wuxian has ever had; and he doesn't understand that, either.

[sillygoofyqueer]

Caught up on losing hope and Four? You asshole (affectionate)?? You made me cry for several reasons?? (I’m only half exaggerating but tbh you got me pretty damn close) wwx being taken care of and getting emotional abt it?? Running away and having a panic attack??? HUALIAN CAMEO?!?? Tbh it’d be a little funny if they became consistent cameo characters who give advice to the disaster that is wangxian. Also you spoil me with all this good writing istg. Like, what else do I read?? It’s hard to find well written fics Four >:/! Also Jin ling crying over Wu Ming??? I was in my room yelling “you would help him escape but he doesn’t want you to because he thinks you’ll hate him!! :(!! (And you actually might…)”. Also jgy catching on?? Hello??? What’s he gonna do with that? Idk whether to hope he does nothing with it and brushes it off or that he’s an evil little asshole and uses it against both of them. I am a bit curious as to what Jiang cheng is going to think about all this. Same with Lan Xichen because in canon he denies it but he can’t really do that here because there’s PHYSICAL EVIDENCE. Or maybe he will deny it because jgy is a good liar. But yea. As per usual I wish I could give you more kudos and please remember to TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF :/

Wrestling you into the biggest hug ever right now, aight?? BIGGEST hug ever. You can't cry, 'cause then I'll cry and I won't be able to work on Losing Hope 😨😨, and nobody wants that. Hey, there's so much going on, maybe Hualian do just randomly pop up throughout the fic and are like, "don't forget, communication is key!" or "always wear red if you want to look badass" and then just vanish, leaving everyone like "???" I'm going to think about this so much now... You are so sweet oh my golly gosh, PLEAASE THERE ARE OTHER FICS THAT ARE BETTER THAN MINE (I've been reading them instead of working on losing hope, but you can't prove that)- ((my current favourite is Grimoire)). You flatter me, now I'm violently sobbing. AGAIN. This really can't be good for me, I can't cry this much. Jin Ling just wants his Wu Ming to come back! He surely could have helped his friend escape, because he cares about his friend more than anything Xiao-Shushu could say about him! No matter what he had done, there has to be a reason for it, or else he would have scared Jin Ling off, right? I think the real question is, how could he recognise Wu Ming if he were to see him on the streets? I think that is one of the biggest fears for Jin Ling, and I can't WAIT to get into that. Jin Guangyao catching on about possible communication between Jin Ling and Wei Wuxian could not be a good thing. I wonder what on earth he could do with all of this information...nothing bad, right? He's too good for that, right? :] Jiang Cheng and Lan Xichen are definitely in an interesting situation in all of this, because Jiang Cheng has no idea what's going on - why on earth is Jin Ling crying? He simply has to do something about this, he has to fucking find who has made his nephew cry and kill them chat to them about why they think it's a good idea to insult Jin Ling. My favourite thing about this AU (of sorts) is that while Lan Xichen does know that Lan Wangji is madly in love with Wei Wuxian (due to being told by his brother, they can talk about these things because ✨communication✨), he doesn't know HOW madly in love with Wei Wuxian his brother actually is, because there was no confrontation after the Nightless City Massacre. For all Lan Xichen knows, Lan Wangji has moved on from Wei Wuxian because he has no idea how down bad Lan Wangji is for this chaotic controversial man of the cultivation world. This is a little ramble away from what you actually pointed out, but I think it genuinely actually helps out with it. As you've said, there's physical evidence of how Wei Wuxian's been treated by Jin Guangyao and the Jin Clan. PLUS!! Lan Xichen in canon could be seen as biased AWAY from Wei Wuxian because of how he's treated his brother (this is just me rambling at this point), meaning he would be less likely to feel sympathy and want to help Wei Wuxian even for his brother. In this world, there isn't this bias away from Wei Wuxian! Could that help with convincing him of what Jin Guangyao has done? We'll damn well see, or my name isn't Four.

[youhideastar]

Fit for Purpose Deleted Scenes IV: Rut

Today's deleted scenes from Fit for Purpose deal with the question of LWJ's rut/a beta's ability to satisfy a rut or heat in general in this universe - a question to which I gave waaaaaay too much thought haha. Other deleted scenes posts are linked in the masterpost. NSFW text. I hope you enjoy!

Okay, so. WWX says several times during Fit for Purpose that, as a beta, he can’t satisfy an alpha’s rut or an omega’s heat. It’s not clear in the story whether that is literal, i.e., there’s a biological incompatibility, or just societal, i.e., “can’t” because it would be scandalous or otherwise transgress social norms. Originally, I figured it would be the latter, which gave rise to this scene:

“It’s kind of too bad you can’t take my rut,” the bold girl says, afterward. She’s breathing hard, still. Sweat gleams in the valley between her breasts. “You’re so good at that, da-shixiong.”

Wei Wuxian props himself up on his elbow. He’s eighteen now, and he’s done a lot of things, but he hasn’t done that, and now that he thinks of it, he’s not sure why. “I could, if you want,” he offers.

He knows right away that it’s a mistake.

She looks like she’s smelled something bad. “That’s for—don’t joke about that. Rut is for your mate. It’s not—” She shivers.

Wei Wuxian smiles, ingratiating. “Ah, forgive this one, shijie – how would I know about mates, ah?”

She laughs. “Good point. Well. Ruts and heats are for your mate, da-shixiong. Serious, you know? Not just for fun. Not like this.”

That would then be followed by this scene:

LWJ’s rut happens during Sunshot. WWX hovers around outside Lan Zhan’s tent. Thinks about how he can’t help Lan Zhan.

Afterward, Lan Zhan asks him why he was hovering.

“How—”

“Scent,” Lan Zhan says succinctly.

“I don’t… I don’t have a scent.” That’s the whole point.

“You do. Now.” A negative.

“And what do I smell like? Now?”

Lan Zhan hesitates.

“Tell me.” Rasp.

“Like death.”

Beat.

“Ah.”

That would have been way too bleak for the finished fic, so I cut it quite a while ago. But I kept ruminating on the topic, and I changed my mind: I wanted the source of the problem to be a supposed biological difficulty (just like the lack of fertility backs up the “no kids” and the lack of a scent gland backs up the “no claim”), because the societal take above was just too bullshitty. It didn’t seem like something that would prevent WWX from believing he could be LWJ’s mate. There needed to be at least a grain of truth to it.

“But Dea,” I hear you say, “did this question need to be answered in the story in the first place?” Well, I ultimately decided the answer was no, and the final posted fic leaves the question open:

“I can’t—” satisfy your rut, Wei Wuxian almost says, parroting what he’s been told his whole life. But those same voices told him he couldn’t have a mate. Or a son.

So instead, he takes a deep breath and says, “Yeah. I’d like that.”

But for, like, a month, I was convinced that if I left this worldbuilding thread unresolved, readers would not find the story satisfying. They’d be left wondering whether WWX and LWJ’s relationship is about to fall apart the first time LWJ goes into rut. Explaining it like this, it sounds so irrational. But I really worried about this! I was sure I needed to get into the nitty-gritty. So I wrote stuff like this:

“Lan Zhan.”

“Mn.”

“It’s all right if you want to spend your ruts with someone else.”

“No.”

“Lan Zhan—”

Kiss in the dark.

“If Wei Ying does not wish to share my ruts, I will continue to suppress them. At my level of cultivation, the techniques to do so are not harmful.”

Beat.

“If Wei Ying would wish to share my ruts. It would—that would bring me joy.”

Beat. WWX swallows. “It’s not that I don’t want to. I can’t. I can’t—” he’s blushing. “I can’t take your knot.”

Lan Zhan’s hand slips between his legs; his fingertips circle WWX’s hole. He sounds almost amused when he says, “Wei Ying imagines his body can stretch no farther than this?”

“Lan Zhan.” WWX’s cheeks flaming.

“You can take more,” Lan Zhan says, with perfect unconcern. “With careful and patient preparation. But only if you wish to.”

This kind of worldbuilding nerdery is so fun for me. (And I flatter myself that this scene is hot.) But this is SO in the weeds, and it was making the final sex scene SO long, when really, that scene needs to be as short as possible so as not to compete with the actual climax of the fic. In fact, I ultimately did not include any sex in the final sex scene at all, for that very reason!

So then I tried an abbreviated version that would answer the basic question during the sex itself:

“I—I’m sorry I can’t do this for you in your rut.” WWX all apologetic.

“Why not?”

“I can’t—you know. Take your knot. Physically.”

Lan Zhan raises an eyebrow. He twists his fingers inside Wei Wuxian; tugs at Wei Wuxian’s rim with his thumb, making him gasp. “Wei Ying’s body stretches no further than this?”

“Lan Zhan!” Blushing furiously. He has to admit, “I… don’t know. Maybe it does.” Everybody says—but then again, everyone says all kinds of stupid things. Maybe he can satisfy an alpha’s rut. Lan Zhan’s rut. Maybe he could have all along.

But (a) like I said, I was starting to realize that I didn’t need to write the sex itself and (b) this bit doesn’t actually resolve the question (although it suggests an answer) and if I’m not going to answer the question anyway, then I might as well just set the question aside super briefly, which is what I eventually did in the two lines of the finished fic quoted above.

I hope this was interesting! Tomorrow, we’ll go through all my failed attempts at getting Jiang Cheng to talk about his feelings. 🤣

[magnaflourious-nerdity]

So the ask got deleted accidentally, but @autisticharrywells asked me about SANGYAO for toxic ship bingo, and now that I have forcibly dragged them through all 50 episodes, i can at last go off---- you FOOL! you have fallen directly into my trap!!! Muahahaha

I do not know how I ended up here. I don't know WHY I ended up here, except that I'm some kind of masochist.

Like I was all prepared to be 100% team wangxian otp and read all the fic and shit, and I started out so promising. (And I do love them...) But then. Then. That little demon brought a bird to class. And the other little demon protected him during the Wen thing. The stabbing ?? The warning as Meng Yao was leaving to huaisang DESPITE actively bleeding. The pleading to Mingjue to let Meng Yao stay despite no evidence of Huaisang ever really standing up to question NMJ decisions before like that (esp in front of other clan members) (other than with things like blowing off Sabre practice) THE FAN CLENCH. MY HEART. And THEN they committed their various atrocities during which the no turning back point was hit for them so many times and yet i do believe the remorse was there and so too was some affection still, twisted as it was by time and hatred and isolation and i... I just....I slipped?

There's so much there!!! (and please keep in mind I'm mostly talking from a cql/the untamed perspective, though I have seen the donghua and am aware of book cannon, I just kinda prefer the show as the version I take to heart (with some notable jgy or Huaisang based exceptions bc i'm nothing if not willing to excuse their pretty boy mid-divorce war crimes))

These two have such a deep shared history that spans the entirety of the cannon, and their relationship is extra fascinating on rewatch as you can more clearly track the downward spiral of events.

There's also the tragedy that it COULD have been avoided, was so close to being avoided several times bc JGY is not really EVIL, (any one who says this is being super reductive imo) but he does preserve himself above all other things and people through sheer learned necessity (with the exception of xichen and isn't that also a beautiful part of sangyao tragedy?? That so clearly xichen and JGY were destined to be the tragic counterparts to wwx and lwj's relationship not nhs and jgy? That xichen was the only thing JGY ever sacrificed true parts of himself for, that huaisang knows that he could have done the same for him, but didn't? Because there was too much history with Mingjue to let it go, and also bc the devotion or affection he held for huaisang when they were both on the mountain never surpassed that point. He had too much caution to truly be himself, and Huaisang, I don't think could ever truly see past JGYs status in the way that xichen was able to since he served as his big brother's vice general and also his appointed companion to a degree. ) And where does that leave huaisang? Where he always is. ALONE. On a mountain he never fit in on in the first place. Where does it leave JGY? Stuck in a permanant customer service role to his awful father and branded further untrustable as a spy. Humilated and broken down to the point of just. So much murder. (Some of which I still maintain tain as a public service coughcoughJinGuangShancoughcough)

They are so much alike and yet so different in such key aspects, that I also have to believe they were meant to act as parallels to one another, just like wwx and jgy, or xichen and wangji. The planning and manipulation they both do (in their own ways bc i am in the camp that while huaisang is smarter than the average bear, smarter than he ever wants to let on bc it makes his life easier, he isnt able to truly outpace JGY's ability to craft a situation. What he is good at is manipulating people and social situations, and adapting his outlined plan extremely well on the fly- with the exception of maybe xichen. I dont think he meant to truly hurt xichen like that. I think that was a natural panic that if JGY was allowed to live it would mean Huaisang actually had to die at some point instead, Though I do also think perhaps there is some lingering resentment there that leads to it to bc why is JGY worth pardoning after his crimes to xichen? Doesn't this mean he inherently valued JGY over Mingjue, over Huaisang’s own pain and anguish? (he did, but not maliciously, lans are love blind we know this))

The tragedies of nie huaisang are inextricably linked to the tragedies of jgy and vice versa! Technically, huaisang, as a bastard of the clan leader with one of his concubines, (I think that's right) should be discounted as a noble son, esp considering his weaker nature and lack of talents dictated to be valuable by the standards of the nie clan. He should have the same status really or at least a status more closely similar to jgy who is constatly looked down on because of his mother's position and bastard status, despite his constant hyper competency, as we see so vividly. And yet Huaisang is given title and rank and (some) respect where JGY gets trodden into the mud and shit of life, even as he succeeds in raising the jin clans success through his actions and talents. Meanwhile, huaisang is thought to be a useless leech by others, untalented in the ways of ruling or anything that's deemed an actually respectable skill by clan leader standards. A pathetic little dude who doesn't know how to do anything, and yes, he does get cast as a headshaker in the eyes of the people, but it's never his background thats brought into question as to why he might be failing. It's considered a result of his personality, not his upbringing. And even then he doesn't get shit talked as much as JGY does. Huaisang has all the privilege that JGY was never afforded, and does that color JGYs view a bit? Does it make him just bitter enough that, when combined with his father’s looming threats and taunts, and Mingjue’s inability to ever let anything JGY does go, that he's willing to hurt huaisang in such a way, even just as a byproduct of his mission?

Huaisang’s plan is successful, bc people discount him as incompetent, yes, but also bc they still see him as a noble, as someone of enough inherent value, diminished though it may be, that he weilds that influence even when playing the fool. JGY doesn't get that respect even at his height of his power and competency as a ruler.

They are, neither of them, strong cultivators. But that factor only really affects JGY bc it means he has to fight even harder for acceptance and validation. Huaisang also gets the luxury of CHOOSING not to be a strong cultivator. Because his position in life IS secure, he can slack off. He is allowed to try his hardest to avoid the fate of his family and do his utmost not to cultivate in that manner. Which I think, too, causes some of the resentment. On both sides. Huaisang never has to work a day in his life, has barely any expectations to live up to and still gets the respect Meng Yao is constantly robbed of. And for huaisang- On top of killing his brother via musically-induced, full-bodied rage embolism, JGY is now also the reason that huaisang is thrust into a position he was entirely unprepared for way before he was supposed to be.

And we know, we KNOW that JGY is responsible for so many of Huaisang’s pretty little things. His beloved indulgences granted not by his own brother, but by his doting san-ge. Things that got burned or destroyed by Mingjue simplu for the fact that a) they were from JGY and B) they are not the type of things NMJ cosidereds respectabke hobbies or skills. A large number of his fans and painting supplies are gifts from JGY, and he stood up for and encouraged those hobbies against the person he probably fears the most at that point, Mingjue (even if he's already actively trying to kill him by then). And huaisang seemed genuinely pleased that JGY had found acceptance and was getting what he (thought he) wanted. The friendship and affection was real, just not near strong enough to withstand the crimes of the other.

And oh boy that divorce was rough and bloody and beautiful and tragic and I just love the messy nature of the relationship, how deep and how twisted it went and became. And i think, right up until the very end, JGY didn't truly want to believe that Huaisang was capable of doing this to him, I don't think he ever wanted to hurt huaisang again the way he had to when he killed Mingjue. Use him? Maybe. But not in a malicious way, not by his standards.

I am happy to read any sangyao content I can get, however! I love reading about them as companions on the mountain, growing together, bonding. Maybe young and in love? I love reading the gradual drifting apart. The years they schemed and used each other. The final divorce. And what comes after. Or what could never be. Any content, I will take, and it depends on where in cannon we are that a particular square is filled in.

Jgy had to fight for both acceptance and sheer survival, and huaisang never really had to do either. Except maybe during the ~10 years of the gap when Huaisang had figured him out, but was pretending to be useless to achieve his ends. You could argue the mindset that aside from just avenging his DaGe, he was also concerned about his own survival bc what if he became an Inconvienience instead of just the annoyance he was playing up to be? If he actually stood in Guanyao's way? It would be much easier to take him out than Mingjue, realistically. But what would be that threshold to have JGY actually do anything? Are Huaisang’s histrionics and uselessness useful to him? Or a result of guilty indulgence? Or left over fondness from a ti.e they were so close? Some combo of all? Who can say and I fucking love that uncertainty about them

Saying all that, these two are the poster child for OTP I don't want to end up together in Canon, lol. Unless it's one of the many time travel fix it aus, they simply have too much history and shared issues and rage between them to ever make sense working out. But their stories are so incomplete without the other, they are inexorably linked, and I just think they're neat!

(Please don't come for me cql fans. im sure I've misunderstood or posted an opinion that's utterly debatable on here. But like, also. I'm tired and I love them and I don't care.)

I have more to say about them that you'll probably get to hear at some point when we talk, but for now, they have BROKEN MY BRAIN.

Also, to all my fellow sangyao peeps: please feel free to send fic recs if you want. I am so hungry for the content.

[mdzs-owns-my-ass-i-guess]

Plentiful

The original title of this was "Yiling boys make do" but I thought to myself - that's too on the nose. Ironic considering what's happening down here but alas.

If there are any historical inaccuracies here, no there aren't.

Is this just another WWX thirst fic? Yes.

And what about it.gif

Enjoy <3

There are many types of disease in the world: heart disease, kidney disease, lung disease... Lan Wangji is quite certain he's discovered a new one, the horny disease.

Because it must be an illness of some kind that's making him think the things he's thinking, otherwise he must accept he's the world's thirstiest pervert.

Which. Perhaps.

However, a disease sounds less embarrassing.

Context for all these medical musings is the fact that it's harvest season and grains and vegetables are plentiful. You might wonder - what does this have to do with horny disease?

Wei Ying bought corn. A lot of corn.

See where this is going? No, not there... yet. Well, it has gone there in Lan Wangji's mind, but that's just the horny disease effect and not reality. If it becomes reality, Lan Wangji's really going to become jealous of a vegetable and that's a new low even for his vinegar-chugging ways.

Point is, Wei Ying genuinely likes corn. And that's great! Corn is a nutritious vegetable, very versatile, can be used for a lot of purposes.

Corn is also very phallic.

And Lan Wangji is suffering.

Because Wei Ying is just innocently trying to make some buttery corn on the cob and Lan Wangji has been horny gripping Bichen for the past fifteen minutes. It's gotten to the point he can feel the sword's spirit vibrate in discomfort.

But genuinely, there's so much he can do without jumping Wei Ying's bones in this very public Lan kitchen as he's basically jerking this corn cob off with melted butter as lube.

Is he jealous of the corn or does he yearn to be the corn? Lan Wangji doesn't know.

"Lan Zhan, are you going to help me or just watch?"

"Watch is fine."

If he gets up, there will be an extra something for Wei Ying to rub at.

Wei Ying sighs, placing the very wet, glistening corn on a plate as he proceeds to move on to the next one. Lan Wangji has to pretend shufu is there, holding a lesson or something, or he'll-

"Want some?"

Lan Wangji looks up at Wei Ying as if he's out of his mind. Last thing Lan Wangji wants to do is eat corn - he would much rather eat something else right now, but, again, public place, people are coming in and out of the place, and it's not that he cares about propriety (fuck that), he just doesn't want to be providing anyone free entertainment.

Although he's not sure there's a high enough sum he'd accept for someone else to get to see Wei Ying while he's-

"You look distracted." Wei Ying comments, taking a little bite of the cob of corn, and suddenly Lan Wangji realizes he isn't a sick pervert actually.

"You did it on purpose."

Wei Ying laughs, "Did you seriously think buttering corn entails all that? Of course it was on purpose." And he bites into the side of the corn again, keeping eye contact a bit too intensely for the occasion.

"Wei Ying. People are-"

"So? I'm eating, it's a kitchen." A smile, "Oh, look, the butter's dripping all over..." and of course he just had to lick it off the base of the damn cob.

Lan Wangji stands up, sends Wei Ying a dangerous glare, then speaks out, loud enough for everybody else to hear. "Out! Now!"

The disciples don't question him, it's Hanguang-Jun after all - and if Wei Wuxian is with him too, they really need to scatter.

Wei Wuxian tries to sneakily leave as well, taking advantage of the commotion, but he feels a powerful arm around his waist pull him back in. "Not you."

Wei Wuxian laughs, delighted, nervous and aroused all the same. "Say, Lan Zhan, do you think I could use the corn like I did Bichen that one time?"

[truly-morgan]

[JC and OYZ bonding time]

Jiang Cheng + Juniors | Mo Dao Zu Shi 12-07-2021

[200 followers]  [#jiangcheng and #ouyangzizhen bonding time] 

What about oyz feeling slightly left out when they happen to be with jc? Like everyone else in the quartet somewhat has links to him.

The more obvious one is jl, as he is directly related to jc by being his nephew. He had years of knowing the man and being someone important to the sect leader. Of the four of them, he is the closest and the more familiar with jc.

Lsz is close to what wwx and lwj could call a son. Shuangjie has started to talk again, trying to get over some shit from the past by /actually/ communicating, and jc is starting to be to lsz an equivalent of what wwx is to jl.

Ljy, even if he stretches a bit, can also be seen as closer than he is to jc. The lan have more direct contact with the jiang than the ouyang do. By being one of lsz close friends for longer than them and probably even lxc adopted son. Plus, he has the feeling lan disciple might have gone to lp in the past a couple of times.

And it leaves him, oyz of the baling ouyang sect, kind of left somewhere he feels like he cannot really enter. He never really had the time to be left alone with jc or be around him much to get close to him. And they are often at lotus pier when they follow jl there!

He knows the man is nicer than he seems to be at first glance, that him being from a smaller and lesser-known sect (and being the heir of the said sect) wouldn’t be a problem either. He just feels like sometimes he cannot reach the older man because he doesn’t have any reason to, other than being one of jl friends (which he sometimes feels he is not the closest either).

He simply never had the time nor the “reason” to ask times from jc to better know him. Then one day, as he woke up early and couldn’t go back to sleep, he decided to go see the pier. He has been in lotus pier many times before, but he never really got the chance to see them (and he knows many of them a commune pier).

But he does get a little bit lost since he’s not familiar to the place and ends up at a pier that seems strangely retreated from others, but the view here is pretty good so he does decide to stay a tiny bit longer to enjoy it before trying to go back on his track.

“ouyang zizhen?” 

He freezes when he hears the familiar voice, turning around quickly to see jc walking the pier towards him, his robes the most casual he has ever seen him in before. Looks like someone taking a morning walk, but even then, it looks a bit too casual for a sect leader walking around the place.

“S-sorry, I wanted to go see the sunrise at the pier and got lost, I am not sure where in lotus pier I am” he says, although he is starting to have an idea of which one it might be.

“You are at my private pier” jc points out, a small smile on his lips as oyz gets a bit more nervous about it, apologising again about intruding on his private pier like this. Jc gently waves him off about it.

“Why don’t you join me? I was about to have some tea while enjoying the quietness of the morning before duty calls me again”. 

Oyz isn’t sure if he should accept, but at the same time, he feels it would be impolite to refuse so he joins jc for his morning tea.

They first sit in silence, enjoying the warm tea, the rising sun, the gentle sound of birds chirping. It nearly feels surreal, sitting down with sect leader jiang to drink tea as the man is dressed so casually, hair fully down, a contrast to his usual tight bun.

“I heard you started taking more responsibility back at home, how are you doing?” jc asked, oyz a bit surprised by the sudden question. But it did help him calm his nerves a bit more, having the older sect leader being the one to start the contact like this.

“I’m slowly learning, my father was a bit hesitant at first, but I believe I am proving I can be a good sect leader too” oyz replied with a small smile.

He felt like he might not be as great as jc seemed to be, but he was trying his best and wanted to treat his sect disciple with the same care jc gives to the ymj disciples.

“Being a good sect leader is something that we learn with time, I am sure you will be able to do great” jc replied, smiling a bit. He felt like the sect leader wasn’t telling this simply to flatter him, he was being honest with him.

“If you ever need help, do not hesitate to come to me on a-ling" jc added with a small smile, turning to him, “I know you have the potential to be a good and kind sect leader”.

Oyz blushed a bit at this, not expecting to be praised like this, as he thought he was doing an alright job. “I will remember that,” he said, jc humming in response. This lazy and calm morning to idly talk at the pier while everyone else was still asleep managed to break to ice a bit, making oyz more comfortable around jc than he was before.

He slowly started interacting more casually with the man, a bit shy at first when asking questions about sect management (his father’s ways were a bit old-fashioned and he wanted to include newer ways of doing things).

More than once afterwards did oyz went to drink some tea with jc at the pier, something talking about things and events, other times simply enjoying the sound of the water running under them and the chirping of birds.

Oyz wasn’t feeling as out of place as he did in the past, more at ease now that this seemingly invisible wall had been taken down.

Original

[llycaons]

rightt i love the cql ending i think it was needed for them to go their separate ways. soo many cql haters bring up the ending as their main point for why it sucks. its as if they forget they reunite at the very end. also ive seen soo many weird fics where they hate on lz for “leaving wy and abandoning him” when thats such bs 😭 there was a fic summary where it was like ‘novel lz sees cql wy traveling alone and they get together’ like huh?? wy doesnt know that man and he loves HIS lz get over it

literally get OVER it lmao wwx didn't literally say 'WHEN I come back I want to hear the name of the song' (meaning he knows its significance and plans to RETURN and confess/hear lwj's confession) and lwj didn't say "I have long since known it' (meaning he's been in love w wwx for many years and knows it/plans to tell him) for wwx to LEAVE his star-crossed beloved of over two decades in order to shack up with some yellow-eyed weirdo who already has his own wwx who's into the same shit as he is? like. we HEAR lwj say wwx's name at the end, SEE wwx turn and smile. not to be rude but did these people watch the finale to the very end? are they stupid? what do they think is about to happen? lwj is going to say "oh it's you. I don't want to see you again, wei ying. being cc is more important to me than you are. I reject you and I will never have sex with you. that's why I came out to this cliff where you're playing the song I wrote for you. bye' and then leave??? lmao. please. PLEASE

plus it was a mutual decision based off of temporarily incompatible needs - lwj didn't abandon him! and if these fans are mad he 'let him go' then all they're saying is they're mad he didn't, what, imprison wwx somewhere he didn't want to be? clearly wwx wanted to travel and couldn't stay at CR, and clearly lwj needed to return to his home and help them all readjust to a shattered lxc and no cc. no it was good they each had time to breathe and they each as individuals needed to deal with things before they could be together

to be completely honest I think I would have liked the finale less if they HADN'T separated. postres, they slowly did become closer and started breaking down the barriers between them, but it was a process with a lot of stops and starts that seemed to stagnate at times. separation was a huge change that felt like it pushed their relationship into something new and resulted in an event so significant it was like they couldn't even show it. it was a really powerful choice!

to be fair if people don't like cql or think it's not gay enough or the censorship worked too well that's their business and I'm not going to lecture anyone into liking something they don't like, that's fine. there are little things about the performances and writing choices that annoy me too. but if the separation was written bc of censorship then they still got back together in the end and if the separation was an independent decision, then it was made to serve the story, which as a whole was a genuine and sincere attempt to convey a gay relationship even while being censored. and I do think it served the story and the characters very well. I know people also dislike cc lwj, which I can't fault them for since it's so far from the 'run away from the cultivation world' finale in the ending, but as someone who never read the book my first time watching, it made perfect sense to me. like....canonically wwx planned on returning and canonically lwj was there to greet him. if that hadn't happened, yeah it would have sucked. I would have been miserable. but it didn't! they got their ending together!

[admirableadmiranda]

This is me ranting about my fandom experience but the most outrageous takes on wwx are by other wwx fans. They’re the once who make the 1000 wwx is so oblivious to that he’s loved by the great the and only lan wangji and he should be grateful for that.

The same 4 outdated jokes that I swear I saw back in 2019 before I was even interested in mdzs. They basically the once questioning how he could cultivate with his music he basically can’t play he’s clown a laughing stock who basically have to be leashed at this point.

I saw someone say how the lans would’ve loved if lwj basically brought anyone else home but wwx so why aren’t you shipping lwj with those people and leave wwx alone. They the once pushing that wwx is lucky and had no talent or discipline to achieve anything.

Let me not start with morally gray everyone is just as bad as each other takes.

They complain about wwx mischaracterization and next minute they’re the once saying how he failed everyone in his life couldn’t protect the wens did the jiang dirty ect. The call is coming from the house babes

Idk it feels like they want wwx to be this angsty melodramatic bitch and he isn’t, he’s not a comedic relief either who hasn’t grown a day over 15 year old. I don’t know what to think the fact that the main chrackter is falling in either of those 2 categories most of the time

Yeah I know this is a big fandom people can do whatever they want have fun all that but I will still side eye and question their reading comprehension about a character they swore they love so much to. Cuz what do you love about him exactly that seems like an obnoxious mf to me

He also often doesn’t know no to point where it’s actually uncomfortable . Sometimes I question my redemption comprehension too cuz Istg I don’t remember wwx being that annoying in the book or even the drama

Again this is just what I saw and this is a big fandom so def not speaking for everyone 😭

I know what you're talking about anon, and it's always frustrating when I run into it. There is a rather large subsection of Wei Wuxian fans that aren't fans of Wei Wuxian, but someone who wears his face and robes and aesthetic. Even more sadly this is not an uncommon trend across most all of the characters in MDZS too, we see it all the time where all that's left of the character is their name and some of their superficial traits.

It's what happens when you apply fandom character overlay on a work that actually has really tight, consistent characterization and is not so weak that it can be boosted and buffered by authors who ignore the slubs in the writing and create their own consistency wholecloth. This isn't Teen Wolf or MCU, the characters have real, tangible, consistent personalities across their works and you can't just smudge that out for a story without losing something intrinsic in the process.

No need to question your reading comprehension, sounds like you've got him down just fine. Wei Wuxian is subtle, clever and most all of the time good at knowing when's the time to tease and when's the time to act.

I hope that ranting to me helped get it off your chest, I know how frustrating it can be to keep running into wall after wall of fanon.

[underthebrightmooninterests]

The Untamed fic: Returning home (part 3/4)

Part 1 I Part 2

2341 words, yunmeng bros reconciliation fic

Disclaimer: I posted this full fic on AO3 too under the same title so if you want to read the full thing it’s available there. (link in bio)

Summary: the continuation of WWX and LW trying to figure out what’s wrong with JC.

---

Saying Lan Wangji regretted agreeing to Wei Ying’s plan was a massive understatement. They were on day 4 of Wei Wuxian absorbing the resentful energy around sect leader Jiang and Lan Zhan was ready to leave about six hours into the process.

Even with the nightly sessions of him playing cleansing for his husband he could feel Wei Ying getting worse. Wei Wuxian was worried about Jiang Wanyin, Lan Wangji understood that. He would be too if that was his brother laying there, in fact, the thought of his brother had been Lan Wangji’s biggest motivation for coming. Well, that and the fact that it meant a lot to Wei Ying. He can’t get Zewu Jun’s expression out of his mind. His brother had seemed genuinely very worried for Jiang Wanyin and as much as he didn’t like it, if his brother got attached to the Jiang sect leader Lan Wangji was going to do his best to save him.

At least that’s what he thought 4 days ago. What he thought before he saw the way Wei Ying refused to sleep, ate the bare minimum and spent every waking minute he wasn’t listening to cleansing at his ex-brother’s side. Lan Wangji spent most of his time just silently sitting next to the two, his meditation only interrupted with playing the guqin and convincing Wei Ying to take a break.

It wasn’t until a disciple came in and notified them of sect leader Jin’s arrival that Wei Ying left on his own volition without resisting for twenty minutes first.

Wei Wuxian’s steps are heavy but he has a smile on his face at the prospect of seeing his nephew. Lan Wangji silently follows Wei Ying as the latter seamlessly makes his way through all the hallways to the entrance hall where all the guests arrive. Upon finding it empty Wei Wuxian quickly concludes that they must be at the pavilion in the back before he grabs Lan Zhan and runs in that direction.

Neither bring up the way Wei Wuxian is still able to seamlessly find his way through Lotus Pier. His life here seems like forever ago and his memories of it are rapidly fading but like muscle memory he finds his way to where he needs to go.

When they arrive at the pavilion and find Jin Ling, Wei Wuxian doesn’t even have any time to pat himself on the back for finding the boy so quickly before he’s bombarded with questions.

“How is my jiujiu?”

“Why hasn’t he woken up?”

“I thought you were the ‘grandmaster of demonic cultivation’? Come on Yiling patriarch fix my uncle already!” 

Wei Wuxian sighs.

“Hey kid, I’m doing my best alright. I can’t just- “

“Then why is nothing happening? Is there something else going on? Something worse.”

Lan Wangji feels his husband tense up and watches the crease between his eyebrows get deeper. For days he’s been working hours on end to save Jiang Wanyin’s life so being chewed out like this must feel terrible. Lan Wangji puts a hand on Wei Wuxian’s shoulder in the hopes that it’ll be enough to calm him. But as Jin Ling keeps harping on and on it seems it isn’t.

Lan Wangji himself even shushes the boy at some point but he just keeps talking so he ends up just bursting out the Lan silencing spell before Jin Ling pisses his husband off so bad that he’ll say something he’ll regret. Jin Ling looks immensely offended but the lack of sleep combined with the resentful energy has made Wei Ying’s temper worse. He doesn’t want to know what’ll happen if he gets angry now.

Unfortunately, Jin Chan doesn’t notice this as he steps out from behind Jin Ling and begins barking at Lan Wangji.

“Hanguang Jun! How dare you silence our sect leader! We- “

“How dare he?! How dare you yell at him when he came all the way here for a favour for your sect leader!”

Well, it looks like Wuxian finally snapped. The yelling catches the attention from Jiang Hua who was talking to some disciples a few feet away from them. The man quickly runs over and tries to calm Wei Ying.

“Calm down master Wei, young master Jin meant no offense.”

“No offense? We’ve been slaving away for days with barely any sleep to save his life and the first thing he says is ‘why is nothing happening?’. Believe me, I want to save him too. I didn’t go through torture to give up my golden core just to let him die now.” 

Wei Wuxian says the last thing to Jiang Hua in a silent hiss, making sure that Jin Chan standing off to the side can’t hear him.

Lan Wangji doesn’t know Jiang Hua very well. Over the past decade or so he’s watched the boy at Jiang Wanyin’s side during discussion conferences slowly grow into a man. A polite man with who he only really exchanged greetings a few times. A man who seems keen on avoiding conflict and is often the one seen trying to calm sect leader Jiang when he once again loses his temper. His face has this eternal neutral expression on it and as the master of looking cold faced and bored, Lan Wangji respected him for it.

That man completely disappears as Wei Ying brings up the golden core exchange in a hiss. Lan Zhan knows it’s just because his husband is worried, stressed and sleep deprived. These past few years in Cloud Recesses Wei Ying hasn’t really needed to use much resentful energy, this body isn’t used to it. Lan Wangji knows his husband isn’t to blame for his current foul temper but Jiang Hua doesn’t seem to share the same sentiment.

The young man clutches his sword so tight his knuckles turn white; his brows furrow and his eyes widen in both shock and anger.

“Give up your golden core?! If it wasn’t for you, our sect leader wouldn’t have lost his golden core in the first place!”

Wei Ying scoffs: “What would you know? You were barely even born when it happened!”

Jiang Hua seems a little less concerned about who’s listening and Hanguang Jun releases the silencing spell on Jin Ling when he spots the young sect leader trying to dismiss all the Jin disciples around him. It seems Jin Ling senses where this conversation is going. After doing so he quickly turns to Jiang Hua.

“Jiujiu told us to never say anything about that!” Jin Ling’s voice sounds rushed and hushed, confusing both Lan Zhan and Wei Ying.

“Never say anything about what?” Wei Wuxian questions, calming down ever so slightly.

“Nothing!” Jin Ling quickly answers, wildly waving his arms about. The Jin sect leader suddenly looks very much his age as he quietly pleads Jiang Hua to please drop the topic. Jiang Hua’s anger doesn’t subside though as he simply shakes Jin Ling of his arm and points at Wei Ying angrily.

“No! Our sect leader would never reveal it but he needs to know!”

“Know what?” Wei Ying questions again, crossing his arms and leaning back with a quirked brow.

“The night he lost his golden core, do you remember leaving for a moment to get some supplies?”

“Yeah.”

“Jiujiu said no, Jiang Hua!”

“Do you remember nearly getting caught by Wen soldiers?”

Wei Ying frowns and uncrosses his arms as he responds a little more hesitant than before:

“Yeah…”

“But they got distracted at the last minute, isn’t that so very convenient?”

“W-what do you mean?”

“Let’s be honest, the Yiling patriarch was many things but ‘lucky’ wasn’t really one of them, was it? What do you think distracted them? Or should I say, who do you think distracted them?”

Lan Wangji’s arms immediately shoot up to steady Wei Wuxian when the man starts swaying. Lan Zhan can almost see the world crashing down in his husbands’ eyes. The tears he fought for so long no longer stay at bay and are free flowing down his face. Wei Ying shakes his head violently and mumbles a quiet ‘no’ before his face contorts and a wretched sob escapes his throat.

The one thing he knew he did right in his past life.

The number of times he would lay awake trying not to blame Jiang Cheng for going back for his parents bodies.

Jiang Cheng was protecting him.

Jiang Hua, seemingly satisfied with the damage he’d done, turns to Jin Ling and simply asks him if he wishes to be escorted to his room. His tone of voice completely neutral as if there isn’t a man breaking down because of his words right besides him. Jin Ling can’t muster the same neutral facial expression and only manages a small nod. The young sect leader throws a few worried looks back towards Wei Wuxian but eventually follows Jiang Hua, leaving Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji alone.

Neither of them knows how long they stood there. Wei Ying sobbing in Lan Wangji’s arms, muttering something unintelligible every now and then.

Eventually Lan Wangji manages to get Wei Ying back to their room and into bed, not really with the expectation that any sleeping is going to be done but rest is required none the less.

Throughout the night neither of them sleeps. Wei Ying’s brain is too busy processing the information he just received and after getting over the emotional shock he’s now trying to look back on all of his interactions with Jiang Cheng through a new lens. And in true Wei Wuxian fashion this is a process he can not do in silence. So, in the dead of night as both of them lay side by side, every now and then Wei Wuxian interjects the peaceful silence with a new revelation. Lan Wangji answering mostly in hums and thoughtful silence.

“Do you think my senior sister knew?”

“…”

“No, there’s no way he would’ve told her.”

“Mhm.”

“That’s probably another reason that he was so mad about it.”

“Mhm.”

“He sacrificed himself for me and I just kind of threw that back in his face and reversed it.”

“…”

“I wonder why he never told me.”

“…”

“I mean he hates me so much, you’d think he’d tell me just to throw it in my face.”

“Mm. Probably doesn’t hate Wei Ying.”

Wei Wuxian sits up, looking at his husband in the dark.

“What do you mean?”

“Wei Ying’s room was rebuilt. Properly cleaned and taken care of too.”

Wei Ying chuckles: “And how do you know that? Did my Lan gege go exploring without his husband?”

Lan Wangji shakes his head.

“I got a tour when I came here a year ago.”

Wei Wuxian digs in his memories until he remembers Lan Zhan leaving for a few days to help the Jiang sect with a problem pertaining to a neighbouring sect. Neither Lan Zhan nor Jiang Cheng was really happy about it but as the chief cultivator it was Hanguang Jun’s job to solve such disputes.

Wei Ying gasps dramatically: “And you never told me?”

“Wei Ying didn’t want to talk about sect leader Jiang when I came back.”

Wuxian cringes away slightly at the memory of Lan Wangji returning home from Lotus Pier and trying to talk to him as Wuxian waves him off saying he doesn’t want to talk about Jiang Cheng.

“Fair enough.”, Wei Wuxian says as he lays down once again.

“I suppose it makes sense that after all that loss, Jiang Cheng would just turn to anger.”

“Mhm.”

“Do you think he… missed me?”

“Mhm, Wei Ying’s very difficult not to miss.”

“Aww.”

Another moment passes and as the full moon stands brightly at the sky, a crazy idea pops into Wei Ying’s mind.

“Lan Zhan, do you remember telling me about your cultivation getting worse for a moment after I died?”

Lan Wangji turns his head away; this is not a time he likes to discuss so he simply hums in agreement and hopes it satisfies his husband’s curiosity.

“It was like an emotional slump, right? One so strong it affected your cultivation? Your wounds from at the time took longer to heal too. You once described it as a minor qi deviation.”

“Mhm.”

“What helped you out of that?”

“Sizhui and brother.”

For the next while Wei Ying is quiet, clearly lost in thoughts that even he struggles to vocalize. Eventually Lan Wangji has to ask: “Why do you ask?”

“Do you think… there’s any possibility… that… that might be happening to Jiang Cheng?”

Lan Wangji frowns and shakes his head.

“No, very strong emotional torment necessary for this to happen.”

“I mean, he lost his parents before losing his sister and then his brother too. All the while being solely responsible for rebuilding entire sect from the ground up. And he did all this virtually alone, I can’t imagine tiny Jin Ling was much of a help.”

“Was very long time ago.”

 “I suppose that’s true. If it was going to happen it would’ve happened a while ago I guess.”

 “Mhm.”

 “Unless the sect and Jin ling acted like Sizhui and your brother did for you?”

 “…”

 “Lan Zhan you know the feeling right? The feeling of wanting to break down but there’s too many people relying on you. Holding on to that last string of sanity.”

 “…”

 “Maybe the golden core reveal brought everything back up? You know, maybe it snapped the string? They did say this started after the incident in Guanyin temple.”

 “Jiang Wanyin isn’t good with emotions.”

 Wei Wuxian chuckles:

 “Exactly! Maybe repressing all of this grief affected his cultivation. Maybe we should put our focus on his spiritual energy and not the resentful energy. The problem isn’t that he’s injured but that his body doesn’t want to heal anymore.”

 Lan Zhan nods: “Very possible, but first sleep.”

 With a hand to the chest, Wei Wuxian gets pushed down onto the mattress and shoved underneath the covers.

 “Wow Lan-er gege, so rough.”

 -----------------------------------------

to be continued in part 4

[mxtxfanatic]

If you don't mind me asking, could you explain more about your thoughts regarding JC and LWJ's actions re: the Wens? I think that part was the span of a year, right?. Seeing Kim's post about the actions, those are within his control but he can't do much outside of that related to the Lans. I remember Ava (@/jiangwanyinscatmom) taking about Clan positions and how little power LWJ would have held regardless if people saw him as Hanguangjun or the Second Master.

I feel conflicted about JC because he's in a similar position where those in power are telling him what is good and what should be done. How can he speak out against it? But isn't that what LWJ and WWX do? Albeit LWJ acts late in taking a stand against his clan, he does so knowing the consequences. He doesn't repent though. I think there's a fundamental difference between JC and LWJ here but I'm not sure how to conceptualize it.

Alright, so my take on this will likely differ in small ways from the other two’s, but the gist will be the same: Jiang Cheng abandoned Wei Wuxian to the mob that he also had a hand in creating, while Lan Wangji had always tried in his own ways to defend wwx and defuse the volatile situation.

For Jiang Cheng, no one was “telling him” what’s right from wrong; he already knows that he would be wrong to persecute the Wen remnants and is also even close to admitting he owed the Wen siblings a life debt. Plus, even if he didn’t, he’s a whole sect leader by this point and could’ve done whatever he wanted unchallenged, just as the Jin did. There’s a reason the clans keep calling conference after conference when shit goes down, even when it only affects one of them; they are not yet powerful enough to act alone with impunity like the former Wen clan was.

What ultimately gets jc to betray any moral uprightness he may have had is petty jealousy and resentment. Jc’s greatest weakness is allowing his inferiority complex to override his logic, making him a perfect puppet for the actually politically savvy characters. We see this when Madam Yu weaponizes jc’s fear that his father doesn’t love him in order to get jc to stand on her side against his own father. We see this when the Jin purposely spread rumors about how all of the Jiang glory is (rightfully) due to wwx’s actions in the sunshot campaign and jc’s hearing these rumors causes him to lash out against wwx as the Jin want. And we see this when, just as jc is about to explain why he owes the Wen siblings a debt, Nie Mingjue interrupts to say that the Wen killed his parents, reminding jc of his resentment and causing him to fall silent, never revealing the debt that could maybe have saved the Wen remnants lives. Jc had the power to protect the Wen remnants and wwx; he chose to give in to resentment instead and led the charge to murder them all.

Lan Wangji is in a similar position of power (clan heir to jc’s clan leader) but takes a completely different course of action pertaining to wwx. When everyone gathers to hear what happened at the Jin flower banquet, lwj publicly calls out Jin Guangyao and Jin Guangshan for lying about wwx’s words and actions to try and paint wwx as rebelling against the Jiang. He only falls back when his brother, knowing that the Jin are lying, steps in to side with them in their smear campaign. Lwj alone goes to check on Mianmian after she leaves from the slander against her for sticking up for wwx. As I’ve mentioned before, lwj was likely the only who inadvertently got the Ghost General rumors spreading by trying to reason with his brother and/or uncle about the truth of the Burial Mounds settlement, as he was the only one not of the settlement who had seen the newly awakened Wen Ning before the rumors spread. And let us not forget that lwj spoke up for the Wen siblings before their “deaths,” before rescuing wwx from Nightless City and fighting his own clan’s disciples to protect him.

I think in wwx’s first life, lwj did hold back on ways he could have helped, but whereas jc’s inaction was due to resentment at wwx, lwj’s lack of strong action came from a myriad of sources: not knowing what wwx needed/fearing rejection from him, his sense of duty to his clan (who he never had to go against before) vs. his morality, and just his personality. We see his conflict of wanting to help wwx vs. wwx’s boundaries and “clear” distrust of him when we get lwj’s convo with lxc before the fated flower banquet: lwj tells his brother that he wants to bring wwx back to cloud recesses, but wwx is unwilling. Lwj knows that something is wrong with wwx even if he doesn’t know what, but his wish to respect wwx and his choices is stronger than his wish to protect him at the expense of wwx’s boundaries. We get this same melancholic acceptance at the Yiling reunion parting, where lwj accepts wwx’s words that there is no other course for him regardless of his actions, as wwx would not (and morally should not) return the Wen or give up his yin tiger tally. For the duty to clan: lwj had never had to stand against his clan on anything, but the wwx/Wen remnants issue actually tested his sense of morality against his family. Yes, lwj was a clan heir and still beholden to his clan leader, but lxc never commanded lwj as a clan leader, only as an older brother. When lxc sides with jgy in his slander against wwx rather than siding with lwj calling out the lie, lwj is hurt by this. Just to make jgy’s life slightly easier, lxc was willing to forsake clan rules and his own brother to put the man he knows his brother loves on the path to destruction, and lwj knows this. But there’s still an issue that comes with this second conflict: his personality.

Lwj is a doer, not a talker. The moments he speaks up for wwx in wwx’s first life are shocking for the people present, but also easily diverted from by people who do not want others to realize the truth of his words. Lwj also doesn’t press what he is saying when he is diverted, giving people the chance to just condescendingly chalk his words up to “lwj is a nice guy so of course he’d speak up, but he’d never really side with someone we all ‘know’ is bad!” The most crucial moment that he should have pressed should have been that very first moment after the flower banquet, but the fact that his own brother sided against him hurt him into silence. All the other moments were a little too late until Nightless City, where it was a fight for wwx’s life. There he is able to show unambiguously whose side he’s on, as you can’t really say that someone only accidentally drew a sword against you or unintentionally injured 33 senior disciples of your clan. This is the moment where his clan realizes that he is serious about standing with wwx, though again by then it is much too late.

Lwj and jc in wwx’s first life aren’t being constrained by the hierarchy, they are being constrained by their own personal struggles: jc and his resentment and lwj his list of reasons. That’s why in wwx’s second life, jc has leaned fully into his resentment to the point of completely deforming all of wwx’s actions to poison Jin Ling’s understanding of his circumstances, while lwj has raised wwx’s son with love and respect and physically stands by wwx’s side in his second life.

[yunmeng-jiang]

This got a little long, so my thoughts on it are under the cut!

Personality:

"Personality not too strong" (like a lot of these requirements) comes off to me as JC saying "the opposite of my mom." Therefore, I think his idea of a personality that IS too strong is:

talks over you in conversation/doesn't let you get a word in, insists that their view is the right one and they if you disagree you're denying reality

imposes their will over yours, doesn't want to let you make your own choices, doesn't support you in your decisions

nags and belittles you, complains loudly and incessantly about your habits

Lan Xichen doesn't fit that description at all - he's gentle, offers advice rather than demands, is willing to make compromises when needed, and is supportive of his loved ones.

Talkativeness:

I think this falls partially under the first point in the section above, but also involves a willingness to set aside quiet time - this one, I think, is also influenced by Wei Wuxian in some ways. Jiang Cheng is shown to be frustrated by WWX's constant conversation and noise, expressing a desire to be left alone sometimes or at least not be constantly talked at.

Lan Xichen is very good at discerning people's needs and wants, including in conversation; he doesn't overwhelm LWJ by talking too much, and he's willing to just sit and spend time with JGY, or quietly drink tea with his uncle, or just play music on his own. I think he perfectly fits the bill on this one.

Hard-working and thrifty:

We see that he is hard-working in the novel, when he insists on helping Meng Yao with house chores despite his physical state - admittedly, laundry is not his strong suit, but with that plus his dedication to cultivation training to the point where he's considered to be one of the best cultivators in his general, and his efforts to lead his sect well, I think we can say he's hard-working.

"Thrifty" is a bit less obvious, considering that he grew up in luxury, but the fact that he was an efficient and effective leader to his heavily-affected sect during and after the war, and rebuilt Cloud Recesses when it had suffered significant damages (and probably the loss of many sect treasures) while also recruiting and training new disciples and restoring their library, tells me that he has a good mind for budgeting. It's true that JGY did offer him some monetary help with the rebuilding efforts, but that was still a difficult and expensive task!

Must treat Jin Ling nicely:

Given that he's kind even to those rejected by society or deemed too difficult to deal with and generally has a gentle, polite, and friendly demeanor - even towards Wei Wuxian, who he's pretty upset with post-timeskip - I think it's also safe to assume that he'd be good to Jin Ling!

Summary/caveats:

All in all, I think Lan Xichen fits all of Jiang Cheng's requirements except for the one about cultivation not being too high.

Now, it's probable that JC was thinking of women when he created this list, since he cares about his duty to his sect and part of that is producing heirs (though he is unmarried post-timeskip, I would guess that he's either planning on adopting, naming one of his disciples as heir, or just putting it off until Jin Ling is older, or - unlikely but possible - he already has a wife and he just never mentioned it/she never came up,) and it's very possible that he's not attracted to men - same with LXC, if you don't read xiyao, nielan, etc as romantic.

Another aspect of this is that Lan Xichen is also a sect leader. Jiang Cheng obviously doesn't want to give up his sect for the sake of a marriage, and I don't believe LXC would either, so that's a definite hurdle! Maybe they could get together post-canon if Lan Xichen ends up leaving his brother in charge of the sect, but I don't know how likely that is.

lan xichen vs jiang cheng's partner requirements

the image is a screenshot of lan xichen from MDZS Q.

was not too sure about a lot of these so i did kind of guess.

explanations:

naturally beautiful: yes

graceful and obedient: is graceful. also seems much more respectful of authority and tradition than his brother; will try to find a compromise or do as he's told rather than directly oppose you?

hard-working and thrifty: uncertain how thrifty he is given that he comes from a rich sect. then again maybe he learned when hiding with meng yao.

comes from a respected family: yes

cultivation level not too high: no

personality not too strong: tbh idk what this means? he's more willing to hear you out than most of the cast but you probably could not steamroll him in an argument.

not too talkative: idk man he seems to like to chat. but idk man.

voice not too loud: seems to speak at a normal volume.

must treat jin ling nicely: uncertain, we don't really see him interact with jin ling.

[youhideastar]

Deleted Scenes: A Sword With No Hilt

When I posted A Sword With No Hilt, which is part of the Wangxian A/B/O Bingo series, I had some deleted scenes that I wanted to share--but the subject matter of the fic is so heavy that I worried it would seem inappropriately... flippant? I don't know? Honestly, October 2022 was a time of a LOT of anxiety in my life and looking back I was worried about tons of stuff that doesn't worry me anymore. Anyway, I recently got a nice comment on the fic and it reminded me of these scenes, so here they are! These contain spoilers for the fic and deal with the same difficult subject matter, so please check out the warnings there if this is your first exposure.

First up, a deleted bit from the scene in Xuanwu Cave, when Wei Wuxian is captured by Jin disciples:

“Nie-gongzi told me they're engaged,” Jin Zixuan retorts. “He heard it from Jiang-gongzi. Would you know better than he would?”

All eyes turn to Jiang Wanyin.

Lan Wangji has little doubt that this is the first Jiang Wanyin has heard of this supposed betrothal. And although he cares for Wei Ying, he is as poor an actor as Lan Wangji. Lan Wangji’s pulse is loud in his ears.

Jiang Wanyin’s jaw works for a moment. “Yes,” he says tensely. “They’re betrothed. It was an act. Obviously it was an act. Who dares to accuse Yunmeng Jiang’s head disciple?” By the end, he is glaring daggers at everyone except Wei Ying himself.

It is a worthy attempt, and some of the assembled cultivators seem convinced. But Jiang Wanyin’s performance was stiff and wooden – he cannot do for Wei Ying what Wei Ying did for Lan Wangji.

Jiang Cheng does not get a lot to do in Sword, and I really liked this beat for him—and a little more explication of what led Jin Zixuan to assert the engagement story—but as you can see, LWJ is going to have to step in at the end of this bit anyway, so it made more sense to just go straight to that.

*

Wei Ying does not appear to hear him. He drags in a shuddering breath and words keep stumbling out of his mouth: “It’s—it’s so upside-down, that I did… th-that to you, and what I get in return is—is being your mate, that’s the most unfair thing in the world—”

“No,” Lan Wangji says, more forcefully; this time, Wei Ying’s mouth snaps shut. He looks up at Lan Wangji in silence.

Words do not come easily to Lan Wangji. But he must try.

“In Tanzhou,” he says, haltingly. “In Yueyang.”

Wei Ying is quiet, patient. His eyes do not leave Lan Wangji’s face.

“In Cold Pond Cave. I wanted you.”

Wanted to claim you, he almost says, but—it had not come to him, then, that he could. Omegas are claimed; they do not claim. And betas do neither. He had not thought to question those truths, before.

He does not know how long it would have taken him to do so, if his world had not been fractured into needle-like slivers that pierce his skin when he touches them. But it would have happened. There is no world where they would not belong to each other.

He says this to Wei Ying, as clearly as he can, unable to look Wei Ying in the face.

He is therefore surprised when Wei Ying surges forward to kiss him – a hot, desperate thing, licking into Lan Wangji’s mouth as if there is nothing in all the world that he wants more.

“Yes,” Wei Ying breathes against his cheek. “I always did. I always, always—”

Lan Wangji bears him down again, meeting hunger with hunger – this, this is what he would do to Wei Ying with his hands, this—

This is something I wish I’d had more space to expand on in the fic—the idea that they’d have ended up together anyway, or that LWJ thinks they would have ended up together anyway (although knowing how things went in canon, that’s kind of heartbreaking). But this is one fic where it was really important to keep it tight and not have a bunch of detours—and in particular, only have truly necessary conversations between WWX and LWJ, because there’s so much they could talk about and the second half of the fic was in mortal danger of getting very talky. The main point of this scene is established much more concisely in LWJ’s interior mentions of his past fantasies, earlier in the fic.

*

“Wei Ying is my mate.”

“Mn.”

“My husband.”

Shaky inhale. “Unworthy, but yes. Soon.”

“My lover. My zhiji. My friend. My cultivation partner.”

Beat.

He waits for Wei Ying to meet his eyes. Cups his face in one hand.

“My bitch.”

Wei Ying moans, eyes desperate and wet. “Yes. Yes.”

Oh, man, I tried to keep this in, I tried so hard, because I love it, and it’s one of the first things I wrote for the fic, and I think it’s this perfect little microcosm of the second half of the fic, and I really wanted LWJ reclaiming the verbal—not just the physical—pieces of what was done to him. To have him turn around and use the language for WWX that WWX used for him in his performance, but to have it be part of this litany of how much he loves and values WWX, transformed by that context… ugh I love this exchange so much, SO MUCH. But I eventually had to acknowledge that there was nowhere to put it. This would need to be part of a sex scene between their arrival at Lotus Pier and the wedding night, and that would have been one sex scene too many. It could theoretically have gone in the wedding night sex scene itself, but that scene already had a point, about bodies and trauma, and it would have muddied the scene to put this in, too. It had to go, even as it killed me to let it go.

*

He pauses. He knows that some betas can conceive and bear children: “Is Wei Ying…” Beat. “...fertile—”

But Wei Ying laughs. “Oh, Lan Zhan – no, I… I don’t have a womb, so… no, this would just be for pleasure, no chance of—of…”

Beat.

“Breeding,” Lan Wangji says quietly. He knows he has to be the one to say it.

Wei Yin nods, jerky. “I’m… I’m sorry,” he says, hushed. “I—I wish I could. I wish I could give you that, that we could, that you could. Could.” He swallows.

“You wish I could breed you.”

Wei Ying’s eyes are so dark – his mouth open, almost panting. “Yeah,” he breathes.

Another thing that would have been so satisfying for them to reclaim, but that would have had to go in the wedding night sex scene, and that scene, as noted above, already had a lot going on and was in danger of losing focus. So this had to go, too.

Hope you enjoyed!